This invention relates to a device used to facilitate the mounting of equipment such as radios and equalizers into a vehicle dash board in the vehicle's original radio location.
Large numbers of consumers wish to have radios installed into their vehicles for many reasons. Their original radio may have been stolen, their vehicle may have come without a radio, or they wish to upgrade their present radio to one of higher audio standards.
Radios are generally installed into vehicles by either a professional radio installer or by a consumer, usually the vehicle owner, or an amateur acquaintance with experience in the field.
Almost every vehicle manufactured is supplied with a radio from the factory, and in the cases where no radio is supplied the manufacturer places a dummy panel in its location. Each of these vehicles differ with respect to the manner in which their radios are mounted; they may utilize mounting brackets attached to the top, bottom or side walls of the radio, which are in turn attached to the vehicle sub-dash, or they may be attached to a dashboard subassembly directly with screws.
These factory radios are of many differing shapes, styles and configurations. The typical aftermarket radios are generally much smaller than the factory radios, having been designed to fit in a multitude of locations. In addition, aftermarket radios are manufactured with several differing mounting provisions and escutcheon shapes and sizes.
Each differing mounting vehicle radio configuration requires a different mounting bracket and trim escutcheon configuration. The differing bracket and escutcheon configurations are referred to as mounting kits in the trade. These kits are generally configured to mount a particular type and style aftermarket radio into a particular type and style vehicle. Many radio installation businesses stock hundreds of mounting kits to insure the ready installation of a radio into any consumers vehicle.
The ease of use of the mounting kit by anybody installing the radio is of paramount concern. If an excessive amount of time is required to assemble the mounting kit professional installers must raise the cost of the installation, and if excessive adjustments must be made to insure a proper fit, then both professional and amateur installers will be frustrated by the procedure.
The cost of the mounting kit must either be absorbed by the radio installer, or be charged to the consumer. In either case the cost must be very low so as to not destroy the installers profit, nor to make the overall cost of the radio and mounting kit prohibitive to the consumer. This latter reason is especially true where the consumer purchases the radio at a store and installs it themself. Many stores rely on a low cost for this very necessary component in order to keep from overburdening the consumer with add ons that become a major portion of the overall radio purchase.
Typically, radio mounting kits are manufactured from injection molded plastic or bent sheet metal. Injection molded plastic parts are less expensive than bent sheet metal parts but are restricted in shapes to those defined by the injection molding process. This process dictates that all features must be perpendicular with the mold parting line, so that holes in walls perpendicular to the parting line must be made with the use of slide tooling; whereby a feature is tooled into a loose portion of the mold which is moved by the mold when it opens and closes. This type of tooling is very expensive, prone to wear and requires considerable time to make.
Several multiple configuration mounting kits have been created to address the problems associated with the large number of individual mounting kits stocked by stores. U.S. Pat. No. 4,462,564 to Alves et al. shows a mounting kit with a frame comprising a flat face to which the radio is mounted and four perpendicular return walls. These walls are provided with slots which proceed from the rear of the flat face out through the rear of each return wall. "L" shaped brackets are provided which have slots through one face and a single hole through the other face. The face with the single hole is placed against one of the return walls on the frame with the hole aligned with one of the slots. A screw is inserted into the single hole and passes through one of the slots in the frame and into a fastener such as a nut on the inside of the return wall. When installed to the frame with the slotted sides sticking out a large number of possible mounting configurations may be attained. However, since the slots are open at the rear it is structurally impossible to place the slots any closer then 19 mm (0.75"). This severely limits the configurations available.
In order to mount this radio kit to differing vehicles, the brackets must be fastened to the return walls in specific locations for each vehicle. This mounting frame is configured for conventional molding and it is impossible to inscribe specific notes or indicia on the faces of the return walls, consequently it is impossible to describe to the installer the proper positioning of the bracket with respect to front to rear location. The printing of a manual with positioning guides is expensive and impractical to supply due to it having to contain positions for hundreds of vehicles. Installers must loosely attach the brackets to the frame and then temporarily mount the kit into the dashboard of the vehicle, and replace removed dashboard components, including the dash bezel. The frame is then pushed or pulled until it is in the proper position. The dash components must be removed again, without disturbing the location of the mounting brackets. The kit is removed and the screws tightened. This procedure takes an inordinate amount of time and is fraught with possibilities for error, such as a small unnoticed movement of the frame which would cause a tilted or recessed radio installation, forcing the removal and reinstallation of the radio.
The fasteners used must be very shallow, as the space between the inside frame and the aftermarket radio may be as little as 1.5 mm (0.05") per side. In addition, the use of the fasteners adds greatly to the cost of the kit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,420 to Angle et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,386 to Putman et al. both show a mounting kit with a frame comprising a flat face to which the radio is mounted and four perpendicular return walls. These walls are provided with holes in various locations. "L" shaped brackets are provided which have slots through on one face and a single hole through the other face. The face with the single hole is placed against one of the return walls on the frame with the holes aligned with one of the holes. A screw is inserted into the single hole and passes through the hole in the frame and into a fastener such as a nut on the inside of the return wall. When installed to the frame with the slotted sides sticking out a fixed number of possible mounting configurations may be attained. In order to mount this radio kit to differing vehicles the brackets must be fastened to the return walls in specific locations for each vehicle. As the number of holes is limited by the structural strength of the materials on a fixed number of combinations are possible.
The holes are created through the use of slide tooling on all four sides of the mounting frame, which is expensive and adds substantially to the manufacturing cost of the kit. Further, this method requires the use of fasteners which additionally increase the cost.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,699,341 to Ponticelli describes a radio installation kit which utilizes a four sided frame constructed with a multitude of rectangular openings formed upon each side. Numerous accessories, such as brackets, and trim escutcheons are press fit into the openings. The openings are fixed in positions allowing a only a fixed number of combinations with which brackets may be assembled. The frame must be created utilizing slide tooling and the press in accessories require a bonding agent to hold them in place, both of which add substantially to the overall cost of the installation kit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,978 to Ponticelli shows a radio installation kit with a face area where a radio may be mounted and U shaped return rails in the corners. Between the return rails are thin walls which are constructed with square holes adjacent to the rails. Brackets are shown which slide down the U shape rail in such a way as to be held to the rail. A tab is shown on the brackets which will fit into the square holes on the thin walls. A tool is used to slide the bracket down the rail until the correct square hole is located. The structural properties of the thin wall prevent the holes from being closer than 3 mm (0.125"). When the thickness of the bracket is added, the smallest adjustment, front to back, is no less than 6 mm (0.25"). The rails are provided only in the corner areas, allowing a very limited area to which brackets may reach. The square openings must be created with the use of slide tooling.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,039 to Gross shows a radio installation kit which is comprised of a mounting frame having a face to which a radio may be mounted and return walls along the edges of the face. The return walls are provided with openings to which ancillary panels may be mounted. These ancillary panels are constructed with keyed openings through which are pushed keyed brackets. The brackets are first pushed through the openings in the panels and then the panels are secured to the frame using mounting hardware.
Several problems present themselves, first only a limited number of keyed openings are possible on any panel to insure its structural strength, consequently many such panels are required. As the openings are in fixed positions the advent of any new, and different vehicle renders the kit obsolete, unless new panels are supplied for the existing kits. This of course is an expensive procedure.
Secondly, the use of fasteners to secure the panels to the frame creates two additional problems, one being the limited amount of space within the kit for the fasteners, and two being the fact that the fastener on the outside of the frame is not always to the front of the bracket: some vehicles have very tight mounting considerations and it is the industry standard to place the fastener for the bracket forward of the bracket to ensure adequate space for it. Positioning the fastener behind the bracket may cause the installer to modify the vehicle in order to fit the kit into the radio cavity.
It is clear from the foregoing that the current state of the art in the field of radio installation kitting has not produced a radio installation kit which is capable of adapting all aftermarket radios to a great variety of automobiles at a reasonable cost.